“You did. You asked me to sex you now. I realize that you desire my body,” Kostya said to me in the same stern tone of voice that my father had used whenever I was caught doing something I oughtn’t, “but now is hardly the time or place for such actions. I will admit, however, that the thought is not displeasing to me. You are quite comely. Later, we will have the sexing. But for now, we must remain focused.”
I giggled. I couldn’t help it, the giggle just slipped out.
His frown returned. “You find me amusing?”
“I find your phrasing amusing. Comely, to be exact. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used outside of a Georgette Heyer novel. And for the record—” I had to stop for a moment to get a grip on myself. Apparently, my brain decided that giggling was good, and there was no reason to cease that action. “For the record, I do not desire your body. Not that you’re hideous or anything, far from it. Even with those scars, your chest is really nice, and I like your legs because they aren’t scrawny, and you have nice shoulders and naughty bits, but I’ve never been one to put physical attributes ahead of more important things.”
“Such as?” He had his hands on his hips when he asked the question, which just made me want to giggle again.
“Intelligence, a sense of humor, and oh yes, not being a mythical creature.” I swallowed another giggle. “Not that it wasn’t a cool form, but still. I like my men without the sort of baggage that must go with being a shape-shifter.”
“Is that so?” One eyebrow lifted.
“Yes.”
“Then you will not like this.” He pulled me against him, his mouth moving into place on mine, his breath hotter than I could have imagined. And then he kissed the very wits right out of my brain.
For about five seconds, after which my brain began to formulate thoughts again, all of which were highly positive about his kissing technique. My body gave that a thumbs-up and went into immediate seduction mode, which is why I found myself sliding my hands into his hair, careful to avoid his injury, and tugging gently to make him turn up the heat a notch.
It felt like fire was sweeping through me as he obliged, deepening the kiss, his tongue busy in my mouth even as his hands stroked down my back to dig into my behind. I wiggled my hips against him, causing him to moan into my mouth, a sound I wanted to echo. His lips were hot, but his tongue was pure fire, leaving little burning tingles that seemed to light other fires within me, deep fires, secret fires.
I was just seriously contemplating stripping the clothes off him and molesting him right there on the side of the road when he pulled back. Even in the dim twilight, I could see a glow in his eyes, as if they were lit with an inner power that glinted with silver moonlight.
“No,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say. “No, I didn’t enjoy that in the least. Do it again so I can not enjoy it some more.”
His lips curled slightly at the corners, and tiny lines appeared at the edges of his eyes. “If I were to do so, you would end up naked on the backseat of your car. And as much as I might desire that, we would not be safe. Someone could come upon us, and I do not wish to place you in a position of risk.”
“All things considered, that’s really thoughtful of you, but I doubt if we’re in any actual danger. Sweden is a pretty safe country.” I let go of his hair and stepped back, simultaneously embarrassed that I reacted so strongly to his kiss and filled with a strange, empty sort of wanting that I hadn’t felt before. “I concede the point that maybe I don’t find you wholly repugnant. And you’re right—we shouldn’t do that again. I’m not at all the sort of woman who kisses strange dragons when she comes across them. Wow, I can’t believe I just said that sentence. Are you impressed with how well I’m coping? Because I am. I’m not screaming, or ranting, or even calling the cops and having you hauled away. No, sir, I’m just standing here perfectly normal and natural even though my entire world has just been shaken to the core. There are demons who look like dogs, and dragons who look like handsome-as-sin men, and men who get killed and come back without a scratch on them. Really, I think a major award is in order to acknowledge just how well I’m coping, especially after all I’ve been through.”
“If you’re getting an award, then I want one, too,” said Jim as he approached, evidently now refreshed. “It ain’t every day you find out you’re a demon and can talk. How come you’re beet red, Eefies?”
“My name is Aoife. It’s really not that hard to say: EE-fuh.”
“Nicknames are a sign of affection, babe. So what’s the plan? We going to walk to your house or drive like civilized peeps?”
I looked at the dog, then up to Kostya. It took me a minute to stop looking at his mouth and reliving that kiss, but at last I managed to ask, “You said I’m a demon lord. I assume that means that I am his boss?”
“Yes. There are eight demon lord princes who rule Abaddon, but they have legions of demons, not just one. I know of no other demon lords who are not princes of Abaddon.”
“Abaddon being…?”
“Mortals based their concept of hell on it, but it’s not the same thing. Similar in some respects,” he allowed. “But not identical. I am hungry, and my head hurts. I wish to eat and then rest for a while, but if you do not want to drive, then I will.”
“So I have legions of demonic dogs at my beck and call?” The skin on my back prickled at the thought.
“Not so far as I know. A demon lord is technically anyone to whom a demon is bound. For some reason that I do not understand, Jim appears to be bound to you. Do you wish to drive or not?”
I gave in to his prompting and returned to the car, part of me still marveling at how well I had shifted mental gears and gone from denial of all things impossible to a new world where dogs talked, and men were dragons, and I was smack-dab in the middle of it all. “I’ll drive. But don’t you be turning into a dragon while you’re in the car. I don’t want those claws poking holes in my nice upholstery.”
He gave an exasperated look heavenward as he got into the car. I let him think whatever thoughts were possessing him, my own attention focused on driving while trying to sort through the thousands of questions zipping through my mind.
It wasn’t until fifteen minutes had passed that I thought to ask the obvious. “What were you doing unconscious on the beach outside of my house? Was some… I don’t know… dragon killer after you? Is there such a thing? St. George and all that?”
“St. George was an asshat.”
I blinked at him in outright surprise.
“Is that not the right word?” His brow wrinkled. “I read it online. Should it be asscap?”
“No, asshat is the correct word. I’m just… I don’t know, kind of surprised that a dragon knows about asshats. And the Internet, for that matter.”
“Of course I know about the Internet.” The look he hefted my way was filled with scorn. “I may have been held captive for more than forty years, but I am not an imbecile. Once my brother freed me, I learned what advances had been made in society. I have a laptop, and a tablet computer, and an intelligent phone.”
“Smartphone.”
“I can send texts. I am extremely wired,” he added with a sense of pride that I didn’t want to squash by giggling again.
“Clearly, I was wrong, and you are Mr. Technology. So tell me, why do you go around looking like a hunky man if you’re a dragon?”
“Human form is easier to fit into cars. Not to mention sitting upon chairs,” he said complacently, his gaze once again turned to the window at his side. “Dragon form is generally reserved for mating and fighting. We found over the years that it was simply easier to blend in—physically speaking—if we resembled those around us. Do you wish to mate with me?”
The car jerked again, but this time either my reaction had improved or such surprises were getting to be old hat, because I continued on regardless of the squawk from the backseat. “Is that an offer or a question?” I finally managed to ask Kostya.
He flexed firs
t one shoulder, then the other, followed by a stretching of his neck to the left and right before he leaned back in the seat, his eyes closed as he answered. “Which would you like it to be?”
“You know, I think I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever been propositioned so quickly after meeting a man. I don’t want either, and no, as I said a few minutes ago, I have zero interest in mating with you, assuming dragons do that the same way we do.”
“We are flexible. We can do it either as mortals or as dragons. The latter is much more pleasing but requires a bigger space, as well as grounds for the chase.” His voice sounded drowsy now, as if the fatigue of the evening’s events had finally caught up to him. I knew just how he felt, with the added bonus of all the stress that I’d gone through. “That is so… I mean, they have a word for sex that way, assuming you are talking about doing it while looking like a tiny T. rex, and while I’m saying that, ew.”
“Dragons do not look like tiny T. rexes. We have excellent forms that none can duplicate.” He lifted a hand in a vague gesture. “You would not say ew if you knew the pleasures to be found in dragon form. Is it far to your home?”
“About forty minutes. You can take a nap if you like. I’ll wake you when we get to town.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He sounded very tired now, and it didn’t take much longer for him to drift off to sleep. Jim was soon snoring from the backseat as well, leaving me the rest of the way home to think about the way my life had suddenly changed.
What on earth was I going to do with a large black demon dog? How was I going to break it to my sister and brother that I was now a demon lord? Would they even believe me when I did tell them, or would they try to stuff me back in the loony bin?
More worryingly, would I be able to survive the rest of the night with Kostya so temptingly close in my house without succumbing to the lure of his lips?
I sighed to myself and drove northward, my thoughts tangled, but at least there was one thing I knew for certain: “I’m so going to call up Dr. Barlind and tell her that I’m not crazy after all. And then I’m going to send my demon squad to break that electroshock machine.”
Six
The scream ripped through my dream, bringing me instantly to full consciousness, if a little confused and dazed by the sudden waking. I sat up in bed, no stranger to the sound of distant screaming. The occupants of the Arvidsjaur Center sometimes vocalized their issues in ways that were at first frightening and later just became part of the background noise.
But I wasn’t at Arvidsjaur. The sunlight that streamed around the partially closed curtains wasn’t that of the Center, but my own home. The echo of the noise still bounced around my head, but I didn’t know if its origins were from a dream or something external.
A black shadow moved, then stretched and resolved itself into the shape of a large black dog. I stared at it for a few seconds, my brain still muzzy enough that it took until the count of eight before I remembered.
“Jim!”
“Hiya.” Jim stretched again and shook his whole body. “What’s up with Kostya?”
It was on my lips to ask who when the vision of the handsome man rose before my eyes. I was on my feet and wrapping myself in my bathrobe when another scream sounded, this one hoarse and ragged.
“Sweet simmering sauceboats!” I sprinted down the hallway to my brother Rowan’s room. With Jim hot on my heels, I flung open the door and plunged into the semidarkness of the room, half expecting it to be filled with… well, I wasn’t quite sure what. Something bad, that’s all I knew.
Kostya lay tangled in the sheets on Rowan’s bed, his chest and belly exposed, along with one naked leg. He was on his back, one arm flung out, his chest glistening with perspiration. I flipped on the bedside lamp, looking around to make sure something or someone wasn’t hiding, but it was just Kostya in the room.
He moaned and said something unintelligible, his brows pulled down into a fierce scowl. Beneath his eyelids, his eyes were moving, his fingers flexing in an odd rhythm.
“Dreaming, huh?” Jim said, coming over to the bed to stare at Kostya. “I wonder if dragons run in their sleep like dogs do?”
I gave him a look. “He’s not an animal, silly. And yes, I think he’s having a nightmare. A very intense one if the fact that we are standing here talking without waking him is anything to go by. Kostya?” I eased myself onto the edge of the bed, told myself it was not polite to ogle a guest, no matter how tempting, and put my hand on his arm to gently shake him awake. “Kostya, you’re drea—”
Suddenly, I was on my back, and a naked Kostya loomed over me, one hand around my throat. The fingers were black, with wickedly curved white claws that pricked into my flesh.
“No!” Kostya barked, and even in the light of just one lamp I could see his eyes. Despite the fact that he was nearly strangling me, I reached up and touched the lines radiating from one of his eyes, trailing my fingers down to his stubbly jawline. For over a year, I’d seen just such an expression every time I glanced in a mirror.
It was pain, betrayal, and hopelessness, not stark and fresh, but long remembered and still very potent.
Once again, a sense of empathy filled me. Someone had damaged Kostya’s psyche; someone had betrayed him to the point where it was haunting his dreams. I knew well the anguish of that sort of torment, and it made me want to wrap my arms around him, comfort him as I would a distressed child.
But he was no child, and I had my own emotional scars to contend with.
“Who hurt you?” I asked, my voice husky with both sleep and the pressure on my throat.
His hand shimmered and returned to that of a human. He loosened his hold, looking slightly appalled. “It is you. I did not… I must have been dreaming… I apologize. I would never have attacked you if you had warned me of your presence. It is dangerous to come upon a dragon in just such a circumstance.”
“That dragon arm thing was pretty cool, Slick,” Jim said, his eyes taking in the fact that Kostya was quite obviously naked. “And, hey, nice ass for a human form. Bet you could bounce a bowling ball on it. Eefables, you should really see this.”
“My name is Aoife,” I snapped, but nonetheless peered around Kostya in order to get a glimpse of his butt.
It was, as Jim said, really nice. Kostya made an annoyed noise at the back of his throat, shifting to the side so he was no longer looming over me. He also twisted the sheets around his waist. “What are you doing here in my bed? You said earlier that you did not desire me. You made that face that women make when I tell them that I have no interest in mating activities with them. And yet, you are here, touching me.”
“I was trying to wake you up. You screamed twice in your sleep, so I figured you must be having a dilly of a nightmare.” I slid around him and got to my feet. “And dammit, after all that ‘do you want to mate with me’ business, why didn’t you tell me you were gay? Not that I was hitting on you, but still.”
“I’m not gay,” he said with as much dignity as a man can have while wrapped in a sheet and newly awoken from a raging nightmare. “I have learned that women are not to be trusted, and I do not wish for any more involvement with them. As for your outrageous claim, I reject it. I do not scream.”
“And yet you did. Right, Jim?”
The demon, in the process of snuffling Kostya’s clothes, nodded. “Made my hackles stand on end. Man, you don’t even have so much as a stick of gum in your pants pocket. Hey, now that everyone’s awake, think we could have some breakfast? I’m so hungry I could eat something large and Swedish, the name of which I can’t think because apparently my memory loss includes food. But I do know I’m starving.”
“Hardly that,” I said, eyeing his large form. “You look a little chubby to me.”
Jim sniffed. “You clearly do not know your superior sort of demon from the run-of-the-mill variety. My form is obviously a deluxe model and will require ample and frequent applications of food. So why don’t we all go out to the kitchen and s
ee what you have to keep me from perishing?”
A glance at the clock showed it to be morning, making any further attempt at sleep senseless. I opened the door for the dog, wanting to ask Kostya a question and preferring to do so without an audience. “Feel free to go out and get some bacon and eggs started.”
Jim sat and gave me a long-suffering look. “Ain’t got no opposable thumbs, babe. Don’t actually have any non-opposable thumbs, either. See?” He held out a big black paw. “Not even a dewclaw.”
“Then go take yourself outside.”
His head tipped to the side. “How’m I supposed to open the door?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way.”
“You want me to put my mouth on a door handle? Do you know the sorts of germs that are on it?”
“Oh, for the love of the good green earth, go!”
He sniffed again but followed my finger that pointed out the door, saying over his shoulder as he left, “Boy, you must really want to jump Kostya’s bones if you can’t even be with him five minutes before demanding alone time together.”
I muttered something quite rude under my breath and turned back to face Kostya, who had been suspiciously silent during the whole exchange. He had, in fact, busied himself with dressing while I was distracted.
“I, too, desire breakfast,” he said, buttoning up his shirt. I had a small moment of regret at that lovely chest being covered up, but hid my feelings well. “Following that, I will have you contact Aisling. I cannot speak to her or Drake due to the curse, but you can.”
“It’s like you’re speaking English, and yet you’re not,” I said pleasantly, moving to block the doorway when he was about to leave the room. “Whoa, there. I think you owe me a few answers, and now that we’ve all had a little sleep, I’d like them. Let’s start with the big one of how you got to my beach in a state that appeared to be near death, although obviously wasn’t as close as I first thought.”